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“…As expected of the Mage Country. Things are now even more ridiculous than before.”

It was a sea of books. The countless number of ancient bookshelves were filled with books, and each magical book was priceless and contained enough magical secrets to make anyone go crazy.

After receiving a teaching certificate from the Mage Country, I acquired the right to enter this library. In this world, books were the most precious form of wealth, and reading was a luxurious form of enjoyment. Back then, it had been quite the difficult task to just obtain permission to use Tassel Kingdom’s library.

Mage Country was far more generous in this aspect. Even if it was thanks to Kaid’s recommendation that I was allowed to browse through these precious ancient tomes, it also, in a way, proved the foundation of what the Mage Country was built on—recording and transmitting magical knowledge, and seeking the truth and secrets of the world.

“Truth Overseer” was the glorious, highest-ranking title in the Mage Country, and was already an explanation of its goal. The mages’ goal had always been to obtain more knowledge and truth, and their highest ranks simply meant that those individuals had obtained more from the endless sea of knowledge.

Of course, this was the ideal concept of a mage. In reality, there were plenty that were attracted to the mundane. After all, using the power and knowledge that they gained to exchange for the common world’s authority and wealth was far too easy. There were even some mages that learned magic for the sake of obtaining authority from the very start. After cultivating to a certain extent, they would naturally leave.

Yet the current me had no time to comment on the mages as I was already spending most of my time perusing these magical books.

However, there were far more books than I expected, and many books were covered in thick layers of dust. It would seem that nobody had read through them for a long time, and the books were obviously rather disorganized. It was exceedingly difficult to find the ones I was looking for; perhaps I would be unable to succeed in what I wanted here.

Also, the uninvited “guest” kept slowing down my progress as well.

“What a pity. Aston/Fimier/Aibott could have gone up one more rank.”

When old classmates had a reunion, it was only natural to discuss about what happened to the other classmates. However, there was only one type of sentence that always ended up being the conclusion—an exclamation on how a former classmate had ended up dying—and it made me feel rather pitiful and helpless.

For high-level mages, increasing their lifespans wasn’t a difficult problem. Turning into artificial life, half-elemental life, God Envoys and so on were all possible. Even if one’s luck was terrible and they turned into something like an undead Lich, it was still yet another possible path.

Of course, the prerequisite was that one’s power level was high enough. Those who couldn’t even reach the Saint rank wouldn’t have any access to such lifespan-increasing options.

What made me sigh and pity them was the fact that those mages, who should have reached such a rank to begin with, would always die off for seemingly random reasons.

“Just recently, an academic research journal did a study on the reasons for high-ranked mages’ deaths, and it was astonishing. The undisputed leading cause was battle and war, which took up a whopping 71%. Natural deaths like dying of old age or disease was only number two at a mere 11%, and number three was dying accidentally during experiments. Most genius mages would get involved in some sort of conflict or battle or personal grudge over personal benefits and end up losing their lives. All those dreams and hopes of theirs would become nothing.”

Kaid felt that it was both a regret for the geniuses that perished as well as a fortune, as he knew that among his classmates, his talent for magic was considered slightly below average. It was just that he was the type that disliked competing with others, and he preferred to always hole up in his home and conduct research, which imperceptibly led to him reaching the pinnacle.

The geniuses that competed with each other all ended up with nothing but death, and the one who was below average and aware of it became a hermit and lived life peacefully. After a long time passed, it was the below average one who who received everything. In a way, this was a subtle, wondrous irony.

For most mages who abandoned the path of cultivating to become stronger, what stopped them wasn’t their own weaknesses in personal strength but rather temptations and troubles from the outside world.

“By the way, are you really not making fun of me?”

I kept feeling like the meaning of these words were familiar to me. After all, I had died several times already, and I had to keep dealing with worldly affairs due to this and that, but Kaid chuckled at my question.

“You think you count as a genius? Apart from getting full points in an elective class like Mage Personal Defense, what genius would have all his grades barely above the passing mark? You even failed a basic class like Elemental Concepts three times, and if it weren’t for the fact that you got cozy with some female teachers, you probably would have been expelled long ago.”

When I heard this, I was instantly angered and couldn’t respond. I knew it. Something that seemed cute, like childhood friends, weren’t cute at all in real life, especially when the childhood friend was the same gender as you and knew about your dark history. They should all be sent to the moon tied to gnome rockets.

“I was pretty happy to have you in my classes, since that brought down the average grade of our classes significantly. I wouldn’t have to worry about being the lowest scoring person in the class…”

Alright then, Roland the lowest scoring and Kaid the second-lowest scoring individual were chatting together about times long ago, sighing how time was cruel and all those geniuses had already perished. This seemed even more ironic now.

“Don’t say that! You make it sound like I depended on women to support me. Hey hey hey, why are you looking at me like that with such surprise? Be careful, or I’m going to turn on you.”

“You bastard! Don’t you have any self-awareness? ‘Roland who’s good for nothing except his face,’ the ‘Holy Knight that entered the wrong job class’ was quite famous back in the day. Don’t you know that after you got with both Teacher Harloys and Teacher Amelia that so many people purchased drawings of you and used you as a voodoo doll?”

“You seem to be quite well-informed on this topic…”

My fists were clenched tightly in an obvious warning, but this guy didn’t notice it at all.

“Of course, this was one of my main sources of income back in the day. There were many methods of going about it, and just drawing a picture that resembled you wasn’t good enough. Not only did it need to look like you, but it also needed to piss people off, and I needed to draw vicious smiles on your handsome face in order to satisfy my customers. Especially after the news that you abandoned Amelia spread out—my business boomed. On that very day, I received enough orders to keep me busy for the next month, and I got enough tuition money for an entire year. That’s why, even if you scam some gold coins off me now, it’s not a problem at all…”

Seeing this old fellow who always acted so serious but wouldn’t shut up about the topics he liked, I couldn’t restrain myself anymore and viciously punched him.

*Clang!*

This time, it was actually my hand that was hurting. The light of something metallic was actually flashing on that bastard’s face.

“Stoneskin magic? No, Ironskin magic?”

Even though I didn’t feel any waves of a spell being cast at all, Kaid’s skin was obviously as hard as iron. It was a magic I had never seen before.

“Hehe! This is a magic I invented myself, although I got the idea from your legendary story about the ‘The Forest’s Nun Convention and the Eighteen Wolverine Old Ladies’ that you told me in the past. I also named this spell ‘Golden Bell Skin’ after the same technique in that story! It’s able to transform my skin and bones into metal and make me as undefeatable as the undefeatable old lady and wolverine old ladies in the story! Isn’t it amazing?”

Fine then, it was a different world’s magical version of the ancient Chinese martial arts technique “Golden Bell Skin.” I didn’t even know where to start commenting from anymore. The wolverine old ladies, the nun convention, or the undefeatable old lady?

Nonetheless, this helped me understand that the current Kaid was truly a powerful archmage, even if he still wasn’t the serious type at all.

Just like how ice magic was a branch of water magic, the closest type of magic to earth magic would doubtless be metallic magic, which was renowned for high defensive power. Unlike ice magic, which could be learned as its own unique branch, the metallic elements were tightly connected to the earth element, and without cultivating earth element magic to a certain degree there wouldn’t be any way to learn metallic magic. Being able to permanently maintain a metallic magic spell like this was doubtlessly a unique high-level technique.

Not only did this indirectly help me ascertain Kaid’s current power level, but it also gave me a new idea.

“Kaid, come over and help me out. You should be very familiar with earth magic.”

Since Karo City mainly had earth mages in it, its library was, of course, focused on information about earth magic, earth elemental creatures, and earth element magical materials. For me to be reading up on information here, it obviously wouldn’t be because I wanted to learn earth magic.

Although reading about other types of magic wouldn’t have any downsides—it could even be adaptable—based on my talent for magic, trying to learn an entirely new element’s magic would take me at least several decades. I definitely didn’t have the free time for that.

“Emordilorcan’s the apex of earth elementals, and earth element magic is tightly connected to him. I don’t believe he only has the power of this entire Earth Elemental Plane. His past history, any weaknesses he has, any specialties of his, what elemental magic he excels at, and what ace cards he may have—before we battle with him, we absolutely have to find out!”

Hearing this, Kaid revealed a smile that seemed to say, “I knew you would be like this.”

“…If someone else picks a fight with you, you would seem like you didn’t care at all, but in actuality, you would work overnight on investigating the previous eighteen generations of that person’s family. You really are the same as back then.”

Kaid continued to comment on my dark history and made me really want to beat him up, but he clapped his hands at this time.

*Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!*

All the magical lights lit up in the library, and all the doors were opened with a large number of young acolyte magicians pouring in and working busily. Archmage Kaid’s message had already ordered them to begin the task of searching for information.

They had begun with all the books on the bookshelves.

“Team A, start checking from the history section. See if there’s any records of Emordilorcan personally fighting.”

“We, the members of Team B, would like to investigate about similar Earth Elemental Lords and the Elemental Gods. Their powers should be a good reference.”

“Team C would like to start researching about the highest levels of earth element magic. There may be powers similar to Emordilorcan’s there. The most important ones are the forbidden spells that humans are unable to use. Oh, and also the elf kingdom’s forbidden spells.”

The acolytes began to actively research, and Kaid was unusually serious as he spoke.

“At such a time, you can stop doing everything by yourself like in the past. Besides, this is also our battle, so just trust in your companions a little bit for once.”

This was the most serious that I had ever seen Kaid.

“Alright.”

I was even somewhat moved, as I randomly took out a book and began reading.

“…What’s this!”

The cover said, “How to Control and Construct with the Iron Element,” but underneath the exquisite cover was actually a collection of pictures of naked young girls…

“…” The archmage who didn’t say anything but stole the book back from me was the best explanation.

“You used the books that nobody ever borrows as covers to hide your personal treasures. Even this part about you has never changed.”

When I looked around, there were quite a few acolytes furtively dashing directly towards specific bookshelves. It seemed that there were quite a few who actually did this.

“Ah, this is strange! I actually found a porn—”

Before that acolyte even finished his sentence, someone else beside him covered his mouth and dragged him away. Some things were known by everyone already, but their teacher was still here, and it wouldn’t be good for it to be publicized.

As for the “treasure” this acolyte discovered, it instantly disappeared, likely to become someone else’s new personal treasure.

Judging by the large scale of the acolytes’ actions, this was obviously a city where there were too many males and not enough females and some job occupations were still quite undeveloped. Yet some occupations were obviously rather profitable, such as the gnome publisher’s logo on all the picture books that indicated the source of all such books.

All the acolytes’ items had to be teleported over by the Mage Country’s officials, and the luggage they could bring was limited. Since the gnomes’ dimension-tearing devices had fewer restrictions on them, even if only one book was successfully teleported over out of ten, as long as that book could be sold for the price of ten books, it wouldn’t be any loss at all. And from my understanding of the gnomes, they would most likely ask for a price that was sufficient for a thousand such books.

“Heh heh, it really is just the same as long ago. What, you’re still collecting this type of book?”

This time, it was my turn to tease this old gossip.

“The gnomes gave it to me for free—the gnomes gave it to me for free—and I have no idea why they would do so, so I tossed it here…”

This old gossip’s face was capable of turning red? This was a real sight to see. But if what he said was real, perhaps I would have to reevaluate the gnomes’ capabilities. At the very least, their ability to bribe seemed ridiculous.

“…At least, before you go, make the gnomes pay some money that they view as their own blood. They’ve been making too much profit recently; it’s time they pay some of it back.”

Okay then, let us ignore that mysterious voice coming from the corner of the wall.

“Um, you won’t make fun of me, will you?”

“Of course not, of course not, I can understand completely.”

“How could you possibly understand? You winner in life! You were so popular back in the day, and you’re still so young! You—these days, just how many girlfriends have you had? How many beautiful women have you had intimate contact with… Ahhh, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know, you winner in life!”

My mouth twitched, but in the end, I didn’t reply with what I wanted to.

“Actually, I’m the same as you. I’ve been single for the past three hundred plus years. As for intimate contact with beautiful women… does having my body cut up and my heart dug out count?”

“It is better to be a naïve idiot than it is to be Emordilorcan.”

When the innumerable amount of anti-Emordilorcan forces finally arrived together without even the need to summon them, this casual sentence that I said was spread everywhere by everyone. In a way, I wasn’t wrong at all.

When all the anti-Emordilorcan forces gathered together, even all of us were astonished at how powerful the final group was. There was some trouble, though, due to the chaotic command system structure and completely different weapons, equipment, and logistical needs. Not to mention that there were quite a few factions that had enmity with each other, and it was impossible to organize everything.

“Impossible to command everyone under a unified command system? It doesn’t matter, just have everyone attack. You don’t understand? Fine, let everyone fight under their own command and do as they like.”

Since this was just a temporary alliance to begin with, each faction’s leader didn’t think too highly of their other temporary allies. Forcefully requesting a unified system of command would probably end up with a bad result.

Instead, if I allowed them to battle freely under their own commands and just take care of themselves, it would be much easier to receive a better combat result.

And, at the current moment, I was busily needling a certain person’s head with my fists.

“Reyne, you really dared to do such a thing!”